We have a free PDF project download today from the new book by Carina Envoldsen-Harris, Stitched Blooms.

Stitched Blooms celebrates Carina’s love for flowers with 300 delightful embroidery designs and 20 projects ranging from an appliqued quilt to the pretty Mehndi Tea Towel project here today. The book includes a CD of the designs which allows you to easily resize the motifs to fit your project. Carina and Lark Crafts have organized a fabulous book tour full of giveaways, book reviews and more. Today you can download a PDF tutorial for the Mehndi Tea Towel project in Stitched Blooms. The mehndi-inspired stitching turns plain old kitchen towels into something really special.

Your comment below also enters you in our Stitched Blooms book giveaway (open to international winners!). How do you incorporate embroidery in your life? Do you cross stitch, do you create your own designs, do you embellish handmade totes, dresses and more? Do you have embroidery on your walls or on your vintage pillow cases? We’ll announce a winner next week!

Don’t miss the rest of the stops on the tour! You could win embroidery thread, completed projects or spread out your chances to win a copy of Stitched Blooms. See lots of inspiring stitching and more:

168 Responses to Stitched Blooms Mehndi Tea Towel Project

I have just started cultivating an interest in emboidery. I have picked up a few designs online and am going to attempt to learn a few basic stitches this weekend. My first project is going to be stitching onto fabric that will become a throw pillow for my living room. Wish me luck in trying out the awesome new craft technique. I have been studying on the internet, and this looks like a great way to add a new layer of interest to my sewing projects…..

I don’t cross stitch but I do like to embroider. I like chicken scratch and find lots of vintage inspiration. I find myself wanting to accent almost everything with embroidery these days. I haven’t done it much for clothes but like when others do. Especially things for kids. I accent purses, pouches, needle books and would quilt blocks as well but not all the bees are up for it.

Thank you for the download! It’s awesome. I may not make a towel but I will definitely use this pattern! I use embroidery on clothing, Christmas ornaments, truth cards, greeting cards, and on felties. I love stitching. And this book looks phenomenal! Thanks for a chance to win!

I have been embroidering my clothes – jeans, jackets since I was a little girl. I do my daughter’s clothes and other things around the house and have several (4+) big framed cross stitched pictures. I would die without access to needle and thread! Love your stuff, Thanks for sharing!
-Laura

I usually embroider gifts for the special people in my life! In face last month I took a cutom embroidered hankerchief to the Dwight Yoakam concert and made sure that he go it! So fun! Last winter each Wednesday all my crafty friends came over and I got to stitch every week and visit at the same time, I would definatley recommend that arrangement to anyone who wants to fit more friends and stitching into their week! – no excuses!

How do you incorporate embroidery in your life? I make things for my family members, like pictures and handkerchiefs for each of my parents. Do you cross stitch? I used to cross stitch and kind of got burned out on it. Do you create your own designs? I have never created my own design because I am not artistic with drawing. Do you embellish handmade totes, dresses and more? I do not embellish, just embroider. Do you have embroidery on your walls or on your vintage pillow cases? I never keep anything for myself.

My mother taught me how to embroider when I was about 7 and I have yet to put the needle and thread down! I am currently teaching my children (daughters and sons) the art. I embroider to embellish and enhance clothing, blankets, toys, framed artwork, paper.. You name it and I have probably tried to embroider it!

I used to do a lot of cross stitch when I had fewer children. Now I’m too distracted. I’ve switched to embroidery. No counting, just follow the lines! I love adding embroidery to clothing and Christmas ornaments.

I’d love a chance to win this lovely new book! I like to embroider flowers and “doodle” my own flower patterns … on pillowcases, bags and wall hangings. I grew up in a family of cross-stitchers, but I like general embroidery more.

Wow, this looks like an inspirational book! I’m excited to check it out.
Am always looking for that special something to add to my hand-mades.
(Mostly just making up my own embroidery patterns as I go.)

I am a maker of needlepoint and use it to make bags, iphone cases, coasters, pillows, belts and more. I haven’t really tried much embroidery, though I confes to being really inspired by this post and the book. my head is swimming with possibilities. So glad I came across this post and your blog!

I’ve been very slowly embroidering the edges of my pillowcases, and I doodle with embroidery thread when I’m bored… sometimes I end up with something I frame and give away. I can’t wait ’til my daughters are more interested in learning. 🙂
The book looks inspiring! Thanks for the great giveaway 🙂

Right now I just embroider with my embroidery machine, but I’m dying to get back into hand embroidery. I used to cross stitch as a teenager and loved it! Now I feel like there’s some things i have that would be absolutely gorgeous with some hand stitched embroidery like this!

I am an avid embroiderer and cross stitcher. I always have some stitching in a hoop!
I have stitching on my walls, in quilts I’ve made, on my kids clothing, on table linens and sewn into pillows.
My newest thing is stitching monograms and little flowers on cardigans! I’ve been shopping for clothes with great fabrics and stitchy spots!

I learned to embroider at age 7 from my Grandma, and cross-stitch not long after from my mom. I’m currently working on a squares for a quilted comforter for my daughter – 16 down, 8 to go. And I have embellished some of her handmade clothing with hand stitching.

Thanks for the giveaway! I’m hoping this book can inspire me to use my hand stitching ability elsewhere!

This book looks so awesome. I have done a few of my own designs, but I find so many good ones done by others that I use them instead. I Love to embroider and especially like to put embroidered blocks in quilts.

I love embroidery and want it everywhere. I use it as my idle work since I can’t just sit. I made my granddaughter an embroidered quilt for her first birthday. I have embroidery on pillowcases and on my walls. I love it!!!

I learned embroidery from my mom’s love of it. I don’t create my own patterns but use modern patterns (sublime stitching, etc.) or from old thrift store books I have collected over the years. I have incorporated it onto kids clothing as well as some small pictures/wall hanging. This book looks like a great resource and I think have just the tea towels that need some embellishment. 🙂 Thanks for the chance!

I have just learned how to do hand embroidery and I am working on a wallhanging. I love the look of the tea towels and will have to start embroidering some for myself. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of Carina’s book.

I have been doing embroidery most of my life starting with a sampler crosstitch I received for Christmas when I was about 10. I also like to buy vintage embroidered kitchen towels and pillowcases when I can find them reasonably priced and in good condition.

I have cross-stitched samplers framed around our house; when I see them I remember working on them in my sister’s hospital room or sitting with her on her couch as we stayed up late, watching movies and talking.

I always have a handwork project going – sometimes two or three. One of my all-time favorites is embroidery. I just finished a set of tea towels with chicken designs. I’m currently working on a strawberry dresser scarf for my mother-in-law. I have counted cross stitch pictures hanging in several rooms in the house. Love the orange and green tea towels. What beautiful designs and bold colors.

Embroidery was my first love-starting when I was 7 or 8. I’ve embroidered on clothing, pillowcases, aprons, and table toppers. I’ve done a few cross stitch patterns to frame, too. My next venture is little bits of embroidery in a quilt!

I’ve been embroidering since I was 10 (many years ago . . .) and like it on many things. Quilts, towels, I’ve even done it on my jeans. I love to do applique and always embellish it with some sort of needlework! The book looks great and I can’t wait to do the towels 🙂

I mainly use embroidery to embellish something that needs ‘ a little something’ to make it pop. I particularly love redwork.
I sleep on my vintage embroidered pillowcases and I ‘rescue’ many garage sale embroideries from the landfill. Some of these, I end up selling on etsy so someone else can love it.

I really enjoy doing counted cross-stitch and embroidery. Right now I seem to be focused on pillowcases for some reason! I enjoy doing the embroidery and then tatting a lacy edging. Pretty bed linens are a special thing and I like using them myself, and also giving them as gifts! 🙂

Pretty! I incorporate embroidery when I mend. I stitch a little flower or bird or vine over the mend. Sometimes you can see the repair, sometimes not. But it show the love that went into the mend, both for the person who wears it and the resources that went into the making of the garment.

I have just taken up the art of embroidery again. And I do believe it is an art. The more you do it, the better you get at it. As with all things. Its been a long time, but I so love tea towels and pillow cases that have that special touch to them. Embroidery is my evening project as I find it very relaxing.

These motifs are stunning, too bad I don’t have any vibrant colour on hand to start a project right now. I have rediscovered embroidery a few months ago. So far I have played with cross stitch and sashiko. I also like to incorporate some hand stitching to my home printed fabric. Embroidery had so many possibilities!

I have a set of vintage pillowcases with a decorative ” his” and “hers” embroidered. I also made a quilt with a group of moms ( reflecting endangered species) and we added the silhouette of a snake slithering across. I would love to embellish more, but the motifs don’t pop into my head like the do for some folks. Perhaps this book is what I need?

OK, confession time here: I’ve only embroidered to embellish a t-shirt and make Christmas decorations. I also own (and use) vintage napkins that have been lovingly hand embroidered. Whenever I see beautiful embroidery though, I want more of it in my crafting life.

I love embroidery! When my sister announced she was having her first child, I wanted to do something special. I asked her what I could make her. She requested a Christening gown that could be used by all our siblings when they had babies. What a beautiful idea! I found a gorgeous reproduction of an 1890’s Christening gown that featured panels of hand embroidery. I cut the panels, and stitched each one separately. Then, I sewed all the panels together to make this dress that has been used cherished by all of my siblings; I had tears in my eyes when my oldest daughter wore it at her Baptism. Then…two years later, I had twins. I wanted to keep that Christening gown special, so I sew another gown, covered with lace, just to make it different. Both gowns now hang in my closet, waiting for grandchildren.

I love counted cross-stitch and have made many projects using this method. I also still have a top I made in the 1970’s: huge, pointed collars with gorgeous hand embroidered flowers and leaves all around the plunging neckline. EMBROIDERY ROCKS!!

I’ve mostly been only cross-stitching however embroidery can be so beautiful I want to find new ways to use it in my home. I also have been thinking about adding some embroidery when I make a quilt – make it a real heirloom piece.

I created my own design for a quilt block for family. I traced photos of the couple & transfered to the quilt block using a fabric pen & used a variety of stitches to personalize it. I would use this new book for dress embellishment, though. Thanks for the giveaway!

I learned to embroider as a young girl. I haven’t done much for many years but I find that I am now starting to incorporate it into my quilts.
This book is lovely, great designs. Thank you for the giveaway

you made me think I have hand embroidery on a linen doll, fingertip towels, table runners, wall quilts, pot holders, cross stitch samplers, clothing…I think I may have missed something! And a few are of my own design.

I did a lot of cross stitching in the past but more recently it’s been embroidery in the form of shadow and ribbon embroidery as well as smocking. Nearly all of that is done on clothing but I do love embroidered linens, especially pillowcases.

I still use the cross-stitched pillowcases that were my first embroidery projects! I embroider small embellishments on odd things once in a while, and picked up sashiko again this spring. This looks like a fun book!

I have done all kinds of embroidery, including crewel, stamped cross-stitch, & counted cross-stitch. in my crafting life. I’ve made pictures, embellished handmade clothing, commemorated the births of our children, etc. I love the kitchen towels!!

I have cross-stitched for 30+ years and am just starting to brainstorm incorporating embroidery stitches onto some of my hand made sewn bags, totes and baby/kid’s clothes and blankets. I’ve always loved the look of all kinds of needlework.

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We always travel with handmade bags. We have vintage embroidery framed on our walls, piles of fabric next to the sewing machine and more WIPs than we'll ever finish. We love the history, craft and artistry of sewing. Read More

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